Mike Grier inherited a San Jose Sharks team that had missed three consecutive playoffs and was still carrying the expensive veteran roster of a former contender. When he became general manager in July 2022, his task was to give the organization a way forward after its results had stopped justifying those commitments.
He began changing the roster almost immediately. Brent Burns was traded eight days after Grier’s appointment. Timo Meier and Erik Karlsson followed in 2023, then Tomas Hertl in March 2024. The returns gave Grier players and draft choices he could use over the following seasons.
By the time the Sharks drafted Macklin Celebrini first overall in June 2024, Grier had already spent nearly two years reshaping the organization. He had moved established stars, accumulated draft choices, selected Will Smith and signed Collin Graf. Celebrini joined a rebuild that was already underway and became its most important player.
Grier’s decision to name Celebrini captain on September 25 shows how far that work has progressed. The Sharks now have a young core and a much stronger chance of reaching the playoffs. They finished last season with 39 wins and 86 points, improving by 19 wins and 34 points from the previous year and missing the postseason by four points.
Understanding the team he inherited
Grier knew San Jose as a place where winning was expected. He played three seasons for the Sharks from 2006 to 2009, including their 117-point Presidents’ Trophy season. Across 14 NHL seasons and 1,060 regular-season games, he established himself as a dependable defensive forward and penalty killer. His teams reached the playoffs in 11 of those seasons.
He then worked in scouting, coaching and hockey operations before the Sharks hired him on July 5, 2022, making him the NHL’s first Black general manager. He had evaluated prospects as a scout, worked with NHL forwards as an assistant coach and helped with player development as a hockey operations adviser. The general manager’s job brought those responsibilities together.
Grier initially resisted describing the job as a complete rebuild. The scale of the changes grew as he assessed the roster and made decisions about its most established players. His approach developed into a much larger overhaul.
Burns, Meier, Karlsson and Hertl had substantial value to teams ready to win. San Jose’s problem was that it could no longer put enough around them to justify carrying the same roster forward. Karlsson scored 101 points and won the Norris Trophy in 2022-23, yet the Sharks finished with only 60 points in the standings.
The losses that followed were difficult to endure. San Jose finished with 47 points in 2023-24 and 52 the next season. Grier kept turning veteran departures into players and selections the Sharks could use over several seasons.
Making the Karlsson trade keep working
The Karlsson deal shows how much that work involved. Trading a reigning Norris Trophy winner meant finding a buyer for one of the league’s most expensive defensemen. Karlsson was 33, with four years remaining at an annual cap hit of $11.5 million. Finding a contender that could afford him was a significant part of the negotiation.
Grier also wanted to limit how much of that contract remained in San Jose. As he explained after the trade, in remarks reported by San Jose Hockey Now: “We wanted to be able to have some cap flexibility and financial flexibility to add players down the road.”
The first-round pick San Jose received from Pittsburgh became No. 14 in 2024. Grier combined it with No. 42, acquired through the Meier trade, to move up to No. 11 and select defenseman Sam Dickinson. A year later, Dickinson was named the Ontario Hockey League’s defenseman of the year after producing 91 points in 55 regular-season games for London.
Mikael Granlund gave the Sharks a different kind of return. He had managed five points after joining Pittsburgh late in the 2022-23 season. In San Jose, he produced 105 points in 121 games and was leading the team in scoring when Grier traded him and Cody Ceci to Dallas in February 2025.
Dallas sent a first-round pick and a conditional later selection. The first-rounder became goaltender Joshua Ravensbergen at No. 30 in the 2025 draft. Ceci was also part of the package, so the full return cannot be assigned to Granlund alone. Still, Grier had taken back a player in a complicated salary transaction, received productive hockey from him and then used him to help secure another first-round prospect.
Mike Grier’s major moves, 2022–2026
Selected trades, draft choices, signings and coaching decisions, with the costs and subsequent uses of the returns.
- July 2022: Traded Brent Burns to Carolina. Received Steven Lorentz, Eetu Makiniemi and a conditional 2023 third-round pick for Burns and Lane Pederson. San Jose retained 34 percent of Burns’ remaining salary and cap hit. Transaction record
- August 2022: Traded Adin Hill to Vegas. Received a 2024 fourth-round pick for Hill, who subsequently helped Vegas win the 2023 Stanley Cup. Transaction record
- February 2023: Traded Timo Meier to New Jersey. Received Fabian Zetterlund, Shakir Mukhamadullin, Nikita Okhotiuk, Andreas Johnsson, a 2023 first-round pick, a conditional 2024 pick and a 2024 seventh. Sent Meier, Scott Harrington, Santeri Hatakka, Timur Ibragimov, Zachary Emond and a 2024 fifth, retaining 50 percent of Meier’s 2022-23 salary. The first became Quentin Musty; the conditional pick became No. 42 in 2024. Transaction record
- June 2023: Drafted Will Smith and Quentin Musty. Selected Smith fourth overall and Musty 26th, using the first-round selection acquired in the Meier trade for Musty. Transaction record
- August 2023: Traded Erik Karlsson to Pittsburgh. Received Mikael Granlund, Mike Hoffman, Jan Rutta and Pittsburgh’s conditional 2024 first for Karlsson, Dillon Hamaliuk and a 2026 third. Retained $1.5 million annually for four seasons. Pittsburgh’s pick became No. 14 in 2024. Transaction record
- March 2024: Traded Tomas Hertl to Vegas. Received David Edstrom and a 2025 first-round pick for Hertl and San Jose’s 2025 and 2027 third-rounders. Retained about 17 percent of Hertl’s salary. Transaction record
- April 2024: Signed Collin Graf from Quinnipiac. Added the undrafted college free agent on an entry-level contract. Graf later scored 21 goals and 46 points in the 2025-26 NHL season. Transaction record
- June 2024: Promoted Ryan Warsofsky to head coach. Promoted the Sharks assistant after dismissing David Quinn in April. Warsofsky’s second season subsequently produced a 34-point improvement. Transaction record
- June 2024: Acquired Jake Walman from Detroit. Received Walman and the No. 53 selection for future considerations. San Jose used the pick on defenseman Leo Sahlin-Wallenius. Transaction record
- June 2024: Drafted Celebrini and traded up for Dickinson. Selected Macklin Celebrini first overall after winning the lottery. Traded Nos. 14 and 42 to Buffalo for No. 11, then selected Sam Dickinson. Those two outgoing picks came from the Karlsson and Meier trades. Transaction record
- August 2024: Acquired Yaroslav Askarov from Nashville. Sent David Edstrom, Magnus Chrona and the conditional Vegas first-round pick for Askarov, Nolan Burke and a 2025 third. Edstrom and the Vegas pick had arrived in the Hertl trade. Transaction record
- February 2025: Traded Granlund and Ceci to Dallas. Received a 2025 first-rounder and a conditional later pick for Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci. The first-rounder became No. 30, used on goaltender Joshua Ravensbergen. Transaction record
- March 2025: Traded Walman to Edmonton. Received a conditional 2026 first-round pick and Carl Berglund. Walman had contributed 32 points in 50 games for San Jose; the pick ultimately became No. 20. Transaction record
- March 2025: Traded Zetterlund to Ottawa. Received Zack Ostapchuk, Noah Gregor and Ottawa’s 2025 second-rounder for Fabian Zetterlund, Tristen Robins and San Jose’s 2025 fourth. Transaction record
- June 2025: Drafted Michael Misa and Joshua Ravensbergen. Selected Misa second overall and Ravensbergen 30th. San Jose used its own high selection on Misa and the Dallas first-rounder on Ravensbergen. Transaction record
- June 2026: Acquired Michael Kesselring from Buffalo. Sent the No. 20 pick obtained through the Walman trade for Kesselring and the No. 27 selection. Transaction record
- June 2026: Traded William Eklund for the ninth pick. Sent Eklund, Kasper Halttunen and Brandon Svoboda to Ottawa for No. 9. Eklund had just produced 53 points; San Jose used the selection on defenseman Keaton Verhoeff. Transaction record
- June 2026: Drafted Stenberg, Verhoeff and Lin. Drafted Ivar Stenberg second, Keaton Verhoeff ninth and Ryan Lin 21st. To obtain Lin’s slot, traded Nos. 27, 62 and 120 to Philadelphia. Transaction record
- July 2026: Added Nurse, Trouba and Marchment. Acquired Darnell Nurse for Shakir Mukhamadullin and Zachary Sharp, taking on four remaining years at $9.25 million annually. Signed Jacob Trouba for four years at $8.25 million per season and Mason Marchment for five years at $6.75 million. Transaction record
- July 2026: Extended Celebrini and Graf. Signed Celebrini to a five-year, $94 million extension beginning in 2027-28, and Graf to a three-year, $12.75 million contract. Transaction record
- September 2026: Extended Warsofsky and named a captain. Gave Warsofsky a multiyear extension on September 17, then named Celebrini captain on September 25. Transaction record
What the returns have produced
Walman’s time in San Jose illustrates how much a return could change. He averaged a career-high 23:11 of ice time and led the team’s defensemen in scoring before Edmonton acquired him. The pick from that deal then helped bring in Kesselring and, with two additional selections, Lin. Grier used salary-cap room to acquire Walman, received useful NHL play and later obtained assets he could use again.
The Hertl return gave Grier the means to pursue a goaltender. Askarov was 22 when acquired and had been the first goalie selected in the 2020 draft. Last season’s 21-20-4 record and 3.63 goals-against average leave room for improvement, but his age puts him closer to the timeline of San Jose’s young skaters.
Will Smith was selected fourth overall in 2023 and signed after a season at Boston College. Last season he scored 24 goals and 59 points for San Jose. Michael Misa arrived as the second overall pick in 2025 after a 134-point season with Saginaw, while the Sharks added Ivar Stenberg at No. 2 this June.
The lottery was essential to landing Celebrini and helped San Jose move from ninth to second for Stenberg. Grier acknowledged the good fortune at the captaincy announcement: “We were fortunate to win the lottery and be able to select Mack.” The additions elsewhere in the organization show how much work he has done alongside those selections.
Igor Chernyshov, selected 33rd in 2024, contributed 19 points in 28 NHL games last season. Luca Cagnoni, a fourth-round selection in 2023, had 43 points for the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda. They are at different stages of development, but both give the organization talent to work with beyond the top of the first round.
Collin Graf is already a particularly useful example. San Jose signed him as an undrafted free agent out of Quinnipiac in April 2024. He had been a leading college scorer, a national champion and his conference’s best defensive forward, giving the Sharks reasons to believe his game could translate beyond college.
Last season, Graf scored 21 goals and 46 points in 81 NHL games. Grier signed him to a three-year, $12.75 million extension in July, keeping a productive forward at an annual cap hit of $4.25 million. San Jose added that production without surrendering a player or using a draft selection.
Graf’s usefulness extends beyond his scoring. In announcing the extension, Grier credited his penalty killing and ability to play different roles in the lineup. Those qualities matter for a team trying to build dependable combinations around its best offensive players.
The broader youth contribution is encouraging too. According to NHL.com’s season preview, players aged 23 and younger scored 52.6 percent of the Sharks’ goals last season, the highest share in the league. Much of that reflects Celebrini, but the scoring from Smith, Graf and Chernyshov gives San Jose more to develop around him.
Coaching and the next stage
Promoting Warsofsky placed a coach familiar with the organization in charge as Celebrini and Smith entered the NHL. The first season brought more losing, but the second produced the 34-point improvement. Grier extended Warsofsky’s contract this September, giving the group continuity after its most encouraging season of the rebuild.
Explaining that decision, Grier emphasized Warsofsky’s relationships with players and his ability to help throughout the lineup. In remarks reported by San Jose Hockey Now, he said: “His ability to connect with the group and push the group has been impressive.”
San Jose allowed 3.54 goals per game last season, third-most in the NHL. Nurse and Trouba add experienced defensemen to a team that needs to reduce that number. Marchment gives the forwards another established option as the younger players take on larger roles.
Sheng Peng reported for NBC Sports Bay Area that three of four NHL scouts he consulted preferred Nurse and Trouba to the combination of Dmitry Orlov and Mario Ferraro. That assessment supports the case for an immediate improvement in the players available to Warsofsky.
The veteran contracts also carry a substantial financial risk. Nurse, Trouba and Marchment account for $24.25 million in annual cap charges, with the two defensemen signed through 2029-30 and Marchment through 2030-31. Those deals will overlap with Celebrini’s five-year, $94 million extension, which begins in 2027-28, and with future raises elsewhere in the young group.
The Eklund trade remains another significant decision to assess. San Jose gave up a productive young forward and two prospects to draft Verhoeff. His future NHL contribution will determine whether the additional investment in defense justified that cost.
A captain for the team Grier has built
Celebrini had been calling the team’s draft picks, organizing an early return to San Jose and welcoming newcomers before Grier named him captain. At the announcement, Grier said “all those guys were naturally following Mack,” according to San Jose Hockey Now. Players returning to the minors had also told management how included Celebrini had made them feel.
The Sharks still have to reach the playoffs under Grier, and important decisions remain unsettled. His trade returns, the contributions from players such as Graf and Smith, and last season’s 34-point improvement provide concrete reasons to credit his work.
Grier began that work well before Celebrini arrived. The new captain is now central to the team’s future, and the organization’s progress reflects the decisions its general manager has been making since 2022.
